Fort Myers · Lee County

Fort Myers Dog Bite Lawyer

A dog got loose, and now the wound care, the shots and the calls from an insurance company are all on you, and none of it was your choice. We can take it from here. Call 833-370-8692 for a free consultation. You pay us nothing unless we win. Our Fort Myers personal injury lawyers have taken these cases across Lee County since 1993.

Speak to a Lawyer How these cases work

§ 767.04 Strict liability on the owner.

No free bite Prior viciousness does not have to be proved.

Homeowners policy Usually the source of recovery, not the owner.

Lee County Our Fort Myers office takes these claims anywhere in the county.

In Lee County

Dog Bite claims in Fort Myers

The owner will tell you the dog has never done this before, and Florida does not let that be their defense. Meanwhile you are paying for the emergency room, booking a plastic surgeon, and only just learning that a homeowner policy may be what pays. Making that claim properly is our job, and we start the day you call.

A bite claim lives or dies on documentation, and in Lee County that means the report to Lee County Domestic Animal Services, the rabies quarantine record, and the medical record from the first treatment. Owners commonly dispute the circumstances weeks later, and without the county file it becomes one account against another. Florida's strict liability under section 767.04 means the owner's knowledge of the dog's temperament is irrelevant, so what remains contested is where the bite happened, whether the person was lawfully there, and whether anything provoked the animal.

Short answer

A Lee County dog bite claim lives or dies on documentation: the report to the county, the rabies quarantine record and the medical record from the first treatment. Florida makes the owner liable whether or not the dog had a history, so the argument is usually about provocation and about the value of the scar. Most claims carry a two-year filing deadline.

What to do after a dog bite in Fort Myers

Get treated, because infection is the real risk. A puncture that looks minor closes over bacteria and does not drain, which is why dog bites become serious days later rather than on the day. Hand and face wounds are the ones that need attention fastest. Rabies prophylaxis, where it is indicated, is time-sensitive, and the medical record from that first visit is also what establishes the injury happened at all.
Report it, so a county file exists. A report to the county animal agency opens a file, triggers the rabies quarantine and creates an independent record of the animal, the address and the owner. Owners dispute the circumstances weeks later as a matter of routine. Without that file it becomes one account against another, and the person with the healed wound is the one who has to prove what happened.
Photograph the wounds now, and keep photographing them. Before they are cleaned and closed, then at a week, at a month, and as they heal. Scarring is the largest head of loss in most of these claims and it is the one nobody documents, because by the time anybody thinks about it the only record is a mature scar and a description of what it used to look like.
Get the owner’s details, and the property owner’s. Name, address, phone and any insurance. If the owner is a tenant, note who owns the property, because a landlord or an association that already knew about a dangerous animal can be answerable separately and usually carries a larger policy. Note anybody who saw it, since bites in a yard or a corridor rarely have neutral witnesses later.
See a plastic surgeon before you discuss numbers. An early offer in a bite case is priced on a wound that has not finished healing, and it will not include revision surgery, laser treatment or the further procedures a growing child needs as a scar changes with them. A consultation puts a figure on what is actually ahead. A release signed before that cannot be reopened afterward.

Where these happen in Fort Myers

Lee County’s population changes with the season and so do its dogs, which affects whose animal it was, whose insurance responds and whether anybody can be found later.

Visiting and seasonal dogs

A meaningful share of the animals involved here belong to somebody who does not live in the county year round.
- An owner insured in another state, on a policy that still has to respond and has to be read
- Rental and vacation properties where the dog belongs to a guest rather than to the owner
- Details that have to be taken on the day, because the owner may be gone within the week
- The county file, which fixes the animal and the owner to the address regardless
Beaches, trails and parks

Off-leash bites in public space, where the leash requirement is the starting point rather than the whole claim.
- Local leash ordinances, which are public and worth citing rather than assuming
- Neutral witnesses, though seasonal ones are unreachable within months
- Prior animal control calls about the same dog at the same location
- Camera coverage from surrounding businesses rather than from the park
Doorstep and yard bites

Delivery drivers, landscapers, pool technicians and service workers, all lawfully present and all frequently working at the time.
- A compensation claim alongside the bite claim where the person was working
- Route, scan and work order records, which timestamp the visit precisely
- Gates, latches and fencing that had already failed, which is photographable
- Employer incident reports, usually more detailed than anything else in the file
The eastern county

Rural and semi-rural property inland, where dogs run loose and help is further away.
- Loose and unrestrained animals with no fencing at all
- Long distances to definitive care, which matters where infection develops
- No camera coverage and few witnesses, which puts the weight on the county file
- Property boundaries and whether the person bitten was lawfully present

What causes them

Bites in the shared corridors, elevators, lobbies and pool decks of apartment and condominium buildings
Bites at a friend’s or a relative’s home, which is where most serious injuries to children happen
Dogs at outdoor dining, breweries and stores that allow them
Boarding kennels, groomers, day care and dog parks, where an operator may be answerable as well
People injured intervening when one dog attacks another

The injuries we see, and what each one turns on

The psychological injury, which is not soft

Children who were bitten develop lasting fear of animals, sleep disturbance and avoidance, and it is well documented enough that it is treated rather than dismissed. It is recoverable, and it needs a record made while it is happening rather than a description offered a year later.

Catastrophic injury and death

Rare and real, most often involving very young children or older adults, and usually with more than one animal. Where somebody is killed, Florida decides by statute which survivors may recover and the claim is brought by the personal representative of the estate.

Faces, and why children are hurt worst

A small child is at the height of a dog’s head, which is why the serious injuries in this practice are facial: lips, cheeks, eyelids and ears. They frequently need reconstruction rather than closure, and the scar is permanent in a way an adult’s is not, because it will be revised repeatedly as the child grows. Any assessment made before a plastic surgeon has seen the child is a guess.

What Florida law requires you to prove

Florida does not give a dog one free bite

Under Fla. Stat. § 767.04 the owner is liable for a bite in a public place, or where the person bitten was lawfully on private property, whether or not the dog had ever shown aggression before. The old one-bite rule people have heard about is not the law here. A prior history still matters, because it defeats arguments about provocation and it can support a claim against a landlord or an association that knew, but it is not required.

The two limits on that, and the exception inside one of them

The same statute reduces damages by the share of the bitten person’s own negligence, which is where provocation is argued. It also gives an owner a defense where a sign reading "Bad Dog" is displayed prominently on the property, which is a genuine limitation and surprises people. That defense does not apply where the person bitten is under six years old, and it does not apply where the owner’s own negligence caused the bite.

When it is not a bite, and who else can be answerable

A dog that knocks somebody over, runs into them or causes a fall has not bitten them, and Fla. Stat. § 767.01 makes owners liable for damage done by their dogs more broadly. Beyond the owner, a landlord, an association or a management company can be answerable in negligence where it knew a dangerous animal was on the property and did nothing, and a boarding or grooming business can be answerable for an animal in its care. Most claims arising on or after March 24, 2023 carry a two-year deadline under Fla. Stat. § 95.11.

The full statutory detail, and the parts that differ by claim type, sit on our statewide dog bite page rather than being restated in every market.

How we prove it in Lee County

The first days do more work in a Lee County bite claim than anywhere else on this list, because both the animal’s owner and any witness may leave the state before anybody follows up.

What we go after, and when

The report to Lee County Domestic Animal Services, and the file it opens on the animal and the owner
The rabies quarantine record, which is frequently the only independent identification of the dog
The medical record from the first treatment, which establishes the injury and its mechanism
Photographs of the wounds before closure and at intervals while they heal
The owner’s name, address, phone and insurance, taken on the day rather than looked for later
Witness names and contact details, since a seasonal witness in March is unreachable by June
Work orders, route records and employer incident reports where the person bitten was working
A plastic surgeon’s assessment of what further treatment the scarring will need

Without the county file it becomes one account against another, months later, about an animal nobody can now identify. It is the cheapest thing to do in the first days and the hardest thing to replace afterward.

A setting a dog bite claim in Fort Myers typically arises from

Who would handle your case

Being hurt in Fort Myers is hard enough without working out the legal side on your own. The trial lawyers below have handled dog bite claims across Florida since 1993, and one of them will take yours from the first call to the last check. They will tell you what your case is worth and why, and they will be straight with you about the parts that are hard.

How insurance companies handle these claims

Because liability is usually not seriously in question, an adjuster on a bite claim is working on two things instead: reducing the share and closing the file before the injury is finished declaring itself.

The dog was provoked: The main route to reducing a claim, since Florida cuts damages by the bitten person’s share of negligence. What it usually rests on is the owner’s account of what a child or a delivery driver did in the seconds before. The county file, the animal’s prior history and any witness answer it, and a prior complaint about the same dog tends to end the argument.
An offer, while the wound is still healing: This is the practice where an early settlement does the most damage. A scar at eight weeks is not the scar at a year, revision surgery is common, and a child’s scar will need work repeatedly as they grow. The number should follow a plastic surgeon’s assessment rather than precede it, and a release cannot be reopened.
The policy has an animal exclusion or a sublimit: Some homeowners and renters policies exclude particular breeds or cap animal liability well below the policy limit, and this is presented as the end of the discussion. It is worth reading the actual policy rather than accepting a summary, and worth looking past it: a landlord, an association, a business or an umbrella policy may sit behind the first one.

What a claim can include

Lost income, including a parent’s

Time off work for the injured person, and for a parent attending appointments and surgeries with a child. The second is routinely left out of a claim because nobody asks about it.

Pain, and what daily life has become

Function in a hand, confidence around animals, and how somebody feels about a face they see every morning. It is proved with the account of the people around the injured person as much as with records.

Medical care, and the surgery still ahead

Emergency treatment, washout and antibiotics, then reconstruction. Future procedures are the part an early offer never includes and the part that decides whether a settlement holds up.

Another setting a dog bite claim in Fort Myers arises from

Why Wolf & Pravato in Fort Myers

A Lee County dog bite case is filed in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit at the Lee County Justice Center, and the firm has an office on Colonial Boulevard in Fort Myers rather than a referral arrangement with somebody here. Obtaining the county animal file and tracing prior complaints to an address is local work.

Richard Pravato is one of 861 lawyers Board Certified by The Florida Bar in Civil Trial law, out of a membership over 109,000. The certification is about trial experience rather than advertising spend, and it is the part of a firm’s record that an insurance company checks.

Nothing is charged for the first conversation and nothing is charged at all unless there is a recovery. If we do not think you have a claim, we would rather tell you now than a year from now.

Call 833-370-8692 Free consultation. No fee unless we win.

Questions

Fort Myers dog bite questions

What should I do in the first days after a dog bite?

Get medical treatment, because infection risk is real and the record establishes the injury. Report it so the county opens a file and the rabies quarantine happens. Photograph the wounds before they close, and get the owner’s name, address and insurance. If the owner is a tenant, note the property owner too. Those four things decide most of what follows.

The owner lives up north and has gone home.

It complicates the paperwork rather than the claim. A bite that happened in Lee County is governed by Florida law and filed in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit whatever the owner’s address, and their homeowners or renters policy still has to respond, though the terms may differ from a Florida one. What matters is that their details and the county file were obtained before they left.

It happened at a vacation rental and the dog was another guest’s.

Then there may be more than one party. The animal’s owner is strictly liable. The property owner or a management company may be answerable separately where they knew an animal was there and allowed it, and the rental agreement and any platform terms are worth reading. Identifying every party early matters more here than usual, since guests disperse quickly.

It was a friend’s dog. Do I have to sue them personally?

In practice the claim is nearly always paid by their homeowners or renters insurance, which is what that coverage exists for. Most people find that changes how they feel about bringing it. We can explain how the claim would actually proceed before you decide anything.

I was bitten while on the owner’s property. Does that change things?

Not if you were lawfully there. The statute covers a person lawfully on private property, including the owner’s own. Being an invited guest does not reduce the protection. Trespassing is a different matter.

The questions that come up on every kind of claim, deadlines, fees, recorded statements and fault, are answered on our Florida injury claim FAQ.

Tell us what happened

A lawyer will listen, tell you what Florida law does with those facts, and be straight with you about whether it is worth bringing. We are at 1825 Colonial Blvd, Fort Myers, FL 33907.

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